Friday, March 29, 2013

Friday Finds Lip Stain

OK.  I know I haven't talked about fashion, makeup, clothes, etc. but today I want to share with you on Friday Finds something that has saved me lots of time and money.

I hate to constantly apply lip gloss, lip stick, chap stick and all the rest, but I do want a little color on my lips which has led me to try sooo many products trying to find a long lasting color that doesn't have to be reapplied every 15 minutes.  Who has time for that?  Not me, I'll tell you.

One day while I was out shopping I decided to stop in a little store that most of us have heard of,  Sephora.   I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but decided to ask the lady helping me if she had a lip stain that would actually stay on my lips for more than 15 minutes.  


This is the neatest store and their prices are very reasonable. So, to continue my story, the store clerk suggested that I try Aqua Rouge by Make Up Forever.   Since I'd tried everything under the sun, I said what the heck, let's try this one.  Well guess what?  It's my Friday Find.  I took it home, tried it several weeks and I love it.  It has been the  longest lasting lip stain I have tried yet.  You apply the stain, let it sit a minute or two to set it and then put on the gloss.  I love it.  Give it a try you will be pleasantly surprised how long the color last.
  
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Porch Lamp

You know what it feels like, you find the perfect shaped lamp at your favorite consignment store but it's the wrong color.  What to do?  Paint it .. of course.

I needed a lamp for my front porch and saw this one and loved it's shape, not it's color.
It didn't have a shade on it, so I purchased this burlap shade from World Market.  I needed the lamp to be black so I painted the green parts black and left the tan/gold parts as they were.  I then taped off the top and bottom of shade and painted two black stripes on the lamp.  I used Valspar interior/exterior black satan.  



I think it looks nice next to the black and white print on the porch chair.



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Monday, March 25, 2013

Secret Gardens

Good Monday morning to you all.  I hope this past weekend was a nice one for you.  

Today I wanted to share with you one of my gardens that I call My Secret Garden.  My husband and I use this garden for lunches during our work day or at the end of a hard working- in-the yard day.  It is a little private spot and  it overlooks our vege garden and our old barn.

It is still a little cool here, in the 40's at night and 60's during the day, but we've started working in our yard and planting a spring garden so I thought it would be a good time to share.  The flowers haven't come up in the planters in the back of the table, but I'll share these with you later.



I chose to use Lenten Roses from my yard for my centerpiece since it is Holy week.  Lenten Roses grow  in temperate zones 4-9. They are not roses at all, but are actually of the Butter Cup family. Their flowers bloom during the Easter celebration of Lent.  When they are not in bloom they remain as lush ground cover throughout the year; and they are deer proof.   They make wonderful arrangements because they hold up well for several days, so you can enjoy them for a while.

I love a little garden space I can add whimsical things to like my little woman Gertrude.  I also love to collect interesting old light covers to us in the garden.  They reflect the sunlight and are just pretty.




I love my little secret garden.  Everyone can have a spot they create for special little things.  I love to look out over the garden and talk to God on the beautiful days He gives us in this spot.  It's under a very large pecan tree, so it's shady and the breeze blows over this spot giving us just what we need on a hot sunny day.   
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Thursday, March 21, 2013

Friday Finds Cookbook

Today is such a beautiful day for a girls Spring luncheon.  If only all the girls were home from work to come.  Oh well, I'll set the table, plan the menu, blog my photo's and entice the girls to come over from work for a long lunch.

I have a set of neat plates that were one of my sister's that have a different flower on each plate.  They also have matching bowls, cups, saucers and dessert plates.  Luncheons are the perfect opportunity to use these.  They are so springy, (if that's a word).  I have parts from an old chandelier I use for napkin rings around my black cloth napkins.



Here are a couple of my bunny trays I'll serve lunch on.

We are having Creamed Chicken on Cornbread.  This is a recipe that I got from one of my favorite cookbooks and tabletop books called Come to the Table.   This is my Friday Finds this week because it is a beautiful book full of very pretty photos and wonderful recipes and tablescapes that  I highly recommend.  Here's the recipe for today's luncheon just in case any of you would like to prepare it.

1.5 lbs bone-in chicken breasts, poached
1/2 c sliced green onions
1 c chopped celery
8 oz sliced mushrooms
8 Tbsp butter, divided
1/4 c flour
1/5 c milk
1/2 c chicken broth
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/2 c green peas
2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
6 to 8 pieces cornbread, split in half.

Remove chicken from bone and cut into small pieces.  Set aside.  Saute onions, celery, & mushrooms in 4 Tbsp butter until tender.  Melt remaining butter and stir in flour until smooth.  In a bowl, combine milk, broth and egg yolks.  Add to the flour and stir over low heat until thick and smooth.  Stir in veges, chicken, peas and eggs.  Season w/salt & pepper.  Serve over hot cornbread slices.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Old Treasure

I love old things, furniture, hobnobs, houses, and barns.  There is something so imaginative about these things.  We get to look at them and wonder what they've seen, who's hand has touched them, what was happening long ago.  

I have lots of old things and I seem to have an affinity for them.  Sometimes I want to redo, remake, and repurpose them, and other times I want to leave them as is.  Our old barn is both leave as is and redo.  Just this past weekend, my husband added a little shed roof off of one side for his tractor and lawn mower, so I took a few pictures to share with you.  We plan on leaving as much as possible original, it's in good shape, and use wood and tin roofs from old barns to repurpose ours.



The photo's above are the barn in different seasons, below is my hubby working on the barn this past weekend adding a shed roof for his tractor.





Here are a few of the pictures of the barn.  Our barn is about 80 years old and the wood on it is both beautiful and hard as a rock. 



New, shiney things have their place, and I love them like everyone else,  but nothing touches the beauty of worn, used, aged, and well loved things from the past. 

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Monday, March 18, 2013

Dining Room Chairs Redo

Well, I found the neatest dining room chairs a few weeks ago at one of my favorite furniture consignment stores, Feather Your Nest.  If you saw the dining room in my Christmas post  I had all tan parsons chairs.  Well, I'd had these for years, they were really worn and I just wanted something different.  When I saw these chairs I thought they were a very neat style and would look terrific painted black.  Here's the before pictures:

And here are the after pictures.  I sanded them to remove the sheen, then spray painted them with Rustoleum satin black.  After they had a good 24 hours to dry, I took a fine sanding  block and sanded off a little of the paint on the edges to age them.  The very last thing to do is to polish them with a furniture wax.  This gives them a finished look and feel.


I chose a chevron patterned fabric I bought at West End Upholstery.  The colors match the two parsons chairs I purchased for the end chairs from Palmetto Home Store.
Here are some photos of the chairs in the dining room.  I took these at night so I'm sorry they are dark.  I also added a few yellow flowers to my flower arrangement for a pop of spring color.  


Have a nice Monday everyone.
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